Echo Echo
by samtana
Summary: Featuring the all day echo chamber.


This is not the sequel, but the companion to "Echo."

**I DON'T OWN AVATAR.** I DON'T OWN AVATAR. I Don't Own Avatar. i don't own avatar.

**Echo Echo**

Here's what you need to know about the all day echo chamber:

It's Air-monkish

It really does echo all day long.

Toph knew where it was right away.

And I mean right away. She is Toph, after all. She could "see" the whole temple before anyone else, and she wondered to herself right off the bat, "Gee, why is there all this reverberation of sound over there?" Of course Aang made everything clearer when he said, "And you'll love the all day echo chamber," or something like that (it's a pretty self-explanatory name). Even though no one else really knew what he was talking about, Toph must have had an "Ahhhhhhh," moment. Something Toph-ish.

Well, Toph was interested, because she likes sounds, you know. By the way, she's blind. Explains the obsession with sounds a bit. She wanted to check it out, but then Zuko showed up and ruined everything. It is Zuko, after all. Ruining plans, or trying to ruin them, was his specialty. The point is, Toph got distracted and didn't have a chance to think of the all day echo chamber until after her feet "got burned" (yeah, right) and she had nothing to do but feel the distantly echoing room through the floor. And be carried off as Combustion Man tried to blow everything up with his mind. This is probably what she was thinking, more or less:

"Oh, yeah, the all day echo chamber! I wanted to check that out. Was that an explosion? What was I thinking about? Oh, yeah, the all day echo chamber! I wanted to check that out. Man, I can feel it echoing that explosion just now! Super cool! Crap, I'm being lifted up. I can't feel anything like this. Hm, I wonder what I'll do when I get to the all day echo chamber. Ah! That one almost hit me! Stupid Combustion Man, ruining my concentration!"

Yes, that's definitely what she was thinking.

Or not.

Anyway, Zuko saved the day by doing something right, and even though Katara threatened to kill him if he touched (her) Aang(ie), he joined the group. And he's still not dead yet, so he must not have tried to touch him, even at the Sun Warrior temple. Toph's feet were still hurt, though, and she wouldn't be able to go to the all day echo chamber for a few days.

Well, she made it down there eventually. Apparently it's pretty far down, like below the clouds and you can see all the way to the river. I mean, there's a river at the bottom! She could hear the running water, she said. Obsessed with sounds. She followed echoing vibrations to the room and said, for lack of a better catch-phrase:

"Hello?"

And the room said back:

"Hello? Hello? Hello? Hello? Hello? Hello?"

And so on.

So Toph did that smirk of hers, the super attractive one. Yep, this was the place.

"Hello? Hello? Hello? Hello? Hello? Hello?"

She did some other stuff there, too. Boring stuff, like making sounds and being obsessed and all that. Eventually she came back up and was late for dinner, which pissed Katara off. Those two can be like that with each other. And while they ate in their little circle around the fire, Toph asked him what the all day echo chamber was all about:

"What's the all day echo chamber all about?"

"Oh, yeah, I forgot to show you guys!"

"I've already been there. I'm just wondering, what's the point?"

"What's the point?"

"All it does is echo sound. Why was it built? Was it used for giving concerts or something? And why does it have to echo all day?"

"It's not for concerts. It's for meditation."

"No wonder I was so bored."

"If you have something on your mind, you can ask it to the all day echo chamber."

"But then all you would hear back is your own voice."

"Yes, and no. After a while the sounds change, and the words become different. Eventually you can't even tell what they were before. It's called 'phasing.' Through meditation, you can listen to how echoes reduce your question to its essence and give you an answer."

"Do I have to wait all day for an answer?"

"Not usually, but sometimes."

"Sounds boring."

Naturally Toph came back to the all day echo chamber the next day. She hadn't been there long enough to hear "Hello?" turn into "A doe," or whatever it would have become. She wanted to hear this "phasing" for herself now. Obsession, obsession, obsession.

Actually she was probably there because she had a question to ask. Actually, she was definitely there because she had a question to ask. About nothing less than her love life. By the way, she's blind. That, as well as her secluded upbringing, helps explain why she had such a hard time with love early on. Plus she was only twelve at the time, so love troubles aren't so unusual. And, being only twelve at the time, she asked the most obvious question a young lovesick girl would think of:

"Does Sokka love me?"

So she sat down in the meditation position the way Aang usually did and listened to her voice bounce all around the chamber. Toph was never that good at meditation; it doesn't go well with pounding sweaty men for Earth Rumble. But now was a good time to take a break from her normally ruthless self to confront something on her mind. Of course, her mind quickly began to wander:

Come to think of it, handsomeness is something that all the guys in the group share. Interesting qualification.

I'm hungry. I should have eaten something before meditation. Should I get up and get something? But then I might miss the answer to my question…

I wonder if Aang's been down here yet. Would he ask about Katara?

My butt hurts.

These are all things that Toph undoubtedly thought while she was in meditation. There was no helping the mind from wandering during mediation unless you were an Air Monk like Aang. I'm sure she thought about some other things, too, more explicit things I'd rather not mention.

Anyway, her mind refocused when she realized that the words had already transformed into something recognizable. And it hadn't even been all day, yet:

"The saga of he."

What now?

"The saga of he. The saga of he. The saga of he. The saga of he. The saga of he."

Stupid Air Nomad crap. What in the world was that supposed to mean? Was she supposed to interpret it like a scholar would? She had been trying to interpret his little signs and gestures ever since she realized she was in love with him! That was the last thing she needed, another cloudy answer. Another gray area. Another "I don't know," if you will. But, just as soon as she was about to stomp off in that Toph way of hers, the sounds started to change into something else, and she figured she would stay and listen a little longer, even if she was hungry. Well, soon enough, the words turned into something else:

"To ask all of him."

While still ambiguous, the words were at least starting to turn into something a little more concrete. But it wasn't the advice she wanted to hear. It made her think of something that had been on her mind for a while now, but she was still too afraid to try it out. The words had one more transformation for Toph before she left. The "To" started to fade away, and the "all" quickly morphed into an "it," creating the final:

"Ask it of him."

"Ask it of him. Ask it of him. Ask it of him. Ask it of him. Ask it of him."

The all day echo chamber seemed to like that phrase, not changing again for a good amount of time, and Toph knew it was the final decent advice it would give. And she hated it. She did not want to talk to me about it. Only bad things could happen, she thought. She was only twelve, after all, and she didn't know much about having a love life. She was having all those normal emotions you have when trying to talk with your fist love. If you need another example of this kind of awkwardness, look up "Aang" in the dictionary (yeah, I went there).

Well, Toph is a stubborn person, and she already knew she would have to talk to me sooner or later, and sooner was probably better than later. So when I got back from rescuing my dad, this random prisoner, and Chit Sang, she took me off to the side and told me about the all day echo chamber. Then she told me she loved me in such a cute way that I almost said:

"I love you, too. Let's make a family together, babe. You're my number one."

Or something like that. Of course, I was only sixteen at the time, so I didn't realize until much later that I should have at least said, "I love you, too," but honestly I didn't think it was true back then. Plus I had just rescued Suki (That "random prisoner?" Now my crazy ex-girlfriend), and the awkwardness was just too much. So I totally dropped the ball and said something cheesy, like, "Thanks! I'm glad I'm not the only one!" And then I had to eat something, because I had just spent a whole day pulling off a daring escape without even eating a snack.

Fast forward five or six years. Suki in rehab, Aang and Katara in a traditional ice structure to get married in, me in love with an old friend. It was the first time I had seen Toph in a long time, actually. It was because of all the work I had to do in the South Pole, but I was just telling myself that. Seeing her then was too much for my heart to take, so when I got the chance I pulled her aside and told her my real answer to her question years ago. And she said:

"Thanks! I'm glad I'm not the only one!"

That hurt a lot.

Because when you're twelve and sixteen, you think love is such an easy thing. That if you love someone and they love you back, that's it. Boom. It's over. You get married, have some kids, start your own family, and stay happy forever, or something like that. Well, that's what happened with Aang and Katara, I guess, but that's not the point. The point is I could see from the way Toph was breathing and the way she talked that she was still in love with me. Undoubtedly. But that wasn't enough to make us happy together. It's not as simple as it seems.

Sometimes I've wondered if I should go to the all day echo chamber myself for some advice. But the advice it gave last time was so bad that I think I'll pass. I'm still yet to see something good come of it.

_Fine_

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I don't own "phasing," either. It is a musical discovery from minimalist composer Steve Reich. Most of his music is monumentally powerful, but his phasing pieces are inescapably boring, in my opinion.

Now go read "Sokka's Diary" by Tangy (on my favorites page). My Sokka perspective is a poor imitation of her prose prowess.

Samtana: The one time I try to write Tokka, it turns sad.

Toph: I'm never speaking to you again.

Samtana: Well, a failed love story is 1) more realistic, and 2) more interesting.

Toph: You never do this to Aang and Katara.

Samtana: Well, I had them eat Appa once.

Toph: True.

Samtana: And I burned off Katara's face another time.

Toph: Well, I have a bleak future to look forward to in your Tokka stories, then. If you ever update again.

Samtana: That's a big "if."

-samtana


End file.
